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JOVIAL was developed as a new "high-order" programming language beginning in 1959 by a team at System Development Corporation (SDC) headed by Jules Schwartz to compose software for the electronics of military aircraft.[1] The name JOVIAL is an acronym for "Jules Own Version of the International Algebraic Language."[2] The "International Algorithmic Language" (IAL) was a name originally proposed for ALGOL 58.

During the 1960s JOVIAL was a part of the US Military L-project series, in particular 465L (the SACCS project), due to a lack of real-time processing languages available. Some 95% of the SACCS project, managed by ITT with software primarily written by SDC, was written in JOVIAL. The software project took two years and fewer than 1400 programmer years, less than half of the equivalent time in the SAGE L-project.[3]

JOVIAL was standardized during 1973 with MIL-STD-1589 and was revised during 1984 with MIL-STD-1589C. It is still much used to update and maintain software on older military vehicles and aircraft. There are three dialects in common use: J3, J3B-2, and J73.

Most software implemented in JOVIAL is mission critical, and maintenance is getting more difficult. In December 2014 it was incorrectly reported that software deriving from JOVIAL code produced in the 1960s was involved in a major failure of the United Kingdom's air traffic control infrastructure, and that the agency which uses it was having to train its IT staff in JOVIAL in order to maintain this software, which is not scheduled for replacement until 2016.[7] Conversion of JOVIAL code to new platforms is therefore becoming more common. JOVIAL rehosting and retargeting is currently done by Software Engineering Associates. Conversions of JOVIAL to other languages is currently done by Semantic Designs, whose DMS Software Reengineering Toolkit was used to convert some of the JOVIAL mission software for the B-2 bomber to C.[8]